Alvar Aalto Museum

Alvar Aalto Museum

Alvar Aalto was commissioned to prepare drawings for Jyväskylä art museum, which were finished in autumn 1971. The building was completed in 1973.

“I don´t like the idea of a museum devoted to one man — Instead it should be vital, where the arts and architecture are displayed from many angles.” Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto was commissioned to prepare drawings for Jyväskylä art museum, which were finished in autumn 1971. The building was completed in 1973.

The Alvar Aalto Museum is sited on a slope leading down towards Lake Jyväsjärvi. Above a high, white-painted concrete plinth, the elevations of the Alvar Aalto Museum are clad in light-coloured ceramic tiles named ‘Halla’, the Finnish word for ‘Frost’, and made by the famous Finnish porcelain manufacturers, Arabia. The vertical bands of baton-shaped, glazed tiles divide up the rampart-like elevations to form a relief that gives a strong effect of depth when the surface is washed with light. The rampart-like quality is emphasised by the vertical battens on the roof windows of the exhibition galleries, which cause the roof lights to merge into the façade when looked at from a certain angle.

The entrance façade has no windows apart from a few tiny openings close to the doors. The surface of the massive doors is copper and there is a hint of marble on the left-hand side of the doorway. The roofscape is dominated by the east-facing roof lights.

The lower floor houses the foyer and cloakrooms, café, Alvar Aalto Shop, offices and space for storage. The upper-floor exhibition gallery is about 700 m2 in area. There is a small flat at the back of the building containing offices, plus a studio, which now acts as the museum workshop ‘URBS’.

The Alvar Aalto Museum has a total area of 1750 m2 and a volume of about 7550 m3.

Designed in

1971-73

Location

Finland, Jyväskylä

— 1

Alvar Aalto Museum, elevation. Drawing: Alvar Aalto Museum

— 2

In his first proposal, Aalto envisaged a connecting corridor built between the Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland. Drawing: Alvar Aalto Museum

— 3

Alvar Aalto Museum in 1970s. Photo: Kari Hakli, Alvar Aalto Museum

— 4

Entrance. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Museum

— 5

From the café there is a view towards a series of open-air pools, with water trickling from one to another along the route of what was once a natural stream. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Museum

— 6

Light draws one from the dimly-lit foyer to the stairway leading up to large exhibition gallery on the upper floor. Photo: Janina Kastikainen, Alvar Aalto Museum

— 7

The large exhibition hall houses the museum's permanent exhibition - Alvar Aalto, Architect. In the Gallery there are changing exhibitions on architecture and design. Photo: Janina Kastikainen, Alvar Aalto Museum

— 8

The wave-like surface of the high rear wall clad in pine battens is a reminder of the wall of Aalto's pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Museum